Today’s News 3rd March 2024

• The Pipe Bombs Before Jan. 6: Capital Mystery That Doesn't Add Up
  The Pipe Bombs Before Jan. 6: Capital Mystery That Doesn’t Add Up

  Authored by Julie Kelly via RealClear Wire,

  The newly disclosed video shows a dark SUV pulling up to the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., at 9:44 a.m. on Jan. 6, 2021. It sits for several minutes until a uniformed man with a bomb-sniffing dog enters from the right and steps up to the vehicle. The driver complies with his command, the dog sniffs inside and outside the car which is soon allowed to enter the parking garage. The man and his dog exit back to the right.

  

  This scene is unremarkable except for one detail: The uniformed man and his trained canine came within a few feet of where a plainclothes Capitol Police officer would soon discover a pipe bomb that had been planted there the night before. The bomb, which the FBI has described as viable and capable of inflicting serious injury, along with a similar one found at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee, would appear to be the most overt act of violence perpetrated on Jan. 6.

  Responding to the video discovered by this reporter, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, the Georgia Republican who chairs the House Oversight Committee subcommittee now conducting a separate inquiry into Jan. 6, asked, “How could a bomb-sniffing dog miss a pipe bomb at the DNC? We’ll add this to our long list of unanswered questions and continue getting to the truth.”

  The number of anomalies surrounding this still unsolved case continues to grow. These include:

  • The failure of the Secret Service detail assigned to Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, who was inside DNC headquarters when the bomb was discovered, to find the device before her visit.

  • The fact that the bomb at RNC headquarters was discovered by a government contractor with ties to the FBI.

  • That law enforcement officials repeatedly described the bombs as “highly dangerous” but also said they couldn’t have detonated on their own because of their cheap kitchen timers.

  • That cell phone data that might help locate the perpetrator has been deemed corrupted.

  •  

  • That the FBI’s geofence warrant to obtain cell phone data from Google gives no indication the warrant included the Capitol Hill neighborhood on the night of Jan. 5 – the time and location the pipe bombs were apparently planted.

  • That the FBI assistant director leading the stalled investigation had previously been in charge of the investigation into a kidnap plot against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in which the bureau tried to get alleged conspirators to build bombs.

  • That an FBI whistleblower has testified he was told the bombs were inoperable – a claim that seems supported by video showing authorities allowing children to cross the street toward the DNC bomb after it was discovered.

  Discovery of the new video featuring the ineffective bomb-sniffing dog has also generated skepticism about the timing of the day’s events: The RNC pipe bomb was discovered at 12:40 pm, just thirteen minutes before the first breach of police lines on the west side of the Capitol and 20 minutes before House and Senate members convened to consider the electoral college results of the 2020 election – creating a narrative of grave threat as the protests turned violent. How might the day have unfolded if the bombs had been discovered many hours before and large swaths of the city had been shut down? And why, given the devices’ proximity to the U.S. Capitol and the joint session of Congress that would involve every U.S. Senator and House member, did law enforcement not send investigators with bomb-sniffing canines to the Capitol immediately?

  Vanished Without a Trace

  The greatest mystery may be why official Washington has lost interest in this alleged act of domestic terrorism. In the three years since Jan. 6, the DOJ has conducted what Attorney General Merrick Garland describes as a criminal investigation proceeding at an “unprecedented speed and scale” into the protests. Casting a wide dragnet for Capitol protesters across the country, federal and local authorities in Washington have tracked down and prosecuted more than 1,300 defendants, almost all of whom were unarmed, including 62 individuals so far this year.

  Yet the perpetrator of what could have been the only deadly attack by a civilian that day appears to have vanished without a trace. He or she also seems to have slipped down the official memory hole. Although the Washington FBI field office recently issued a statement saying the “suspect may still pose a danger to the public or themselves” and upped the reward to $500,000, Washington appears to have lost interest in the pipe bomb whodunnit.

  The now defunct Select Committee to Investigate the Attack on the U.S. Capitol barely mentioned the pipe bomb threat in its final report; the committee did not include video of the incident or the suspect during any televised hearings. This strikes some observers as odd for two reasons: The pipe bombs seemed to offer the strongest evidence for the Committee’s case that Jan. 6 was an act of domestic terrorism, and the direct threat to the life of the vice president, who was at the DNC for nearly two hours as the device sat undetected outside the building.

  The major news organizations that initially devoted significant space to promote the idea that a supporter of Donald Trump tried to blow up buildings near the Capitol on Jan. 6 have also lost interest in the case.

  But a handful of outlets led by Revolver News stayed on the story. And the same media once fixated on the pipe bomber now considers poking holes in the government’s official story little more than right-wing conspiracy-mongering.

  The government’s seeming ineffectiveness, however, and lack of forthrightness regarding an allegedly deadly plot filled with unanswered questions has also created a wellspring of distrust. 

  The presence of bombs in the nation’s capital as the joint session of Congress convened to debate the outcome of the Electoral College vote animated the notion that Jan. 6 represented an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated by Trump supporters. Reports that two explosives were found just blocks from the U.S. Capitol initiated the first wave of panic that accelerated throughout the afternoon.

  It began when a 37-year-old woman from Madison, Wisc., named Karlin Younger, who said she was walking to do her laundry near the RNC, discovered a device in an alley around 12:40 p.m. Although it is not clear whether the Jan. 6 committee interviewed Younger – her name does not appear in its final report – she gave numerous media interviews in the weeks and months following Jan. 6.

  In November 2021, Younger told Business Insider, “When I cast my eyes down, I just saw something kind of metallic, and it was just a very passing glimpse, and all I thought is someone must have missed the recycling bin. And I was going to recycle it, because I’m about that life. I just looked, and it was so completely unbelievable. You’re not on high alert. You don’t think you’re under attack. I’m not in Iraq. This is Capitol Hill.”

  She beckoned an RNC security guard whose name has not been made public to confirm her suspicions. “Holy shit, it’s a bomb!” Younger said he exclaimed.

  The FBI interviewed Younger a few days later after she contacted the bureau’s Jan. 6 tip line. But it doesn’t appear she was interviewed again by the FBI.

  The FBI story.

  The FBI official leading the investigation, Washington FBI Field Office assistant director in charge Steven D’Antuono, told House Republicans he did not “recall” who discovered the device. Had the FBI come knocking again, Younger certainly would have consented to another interview. At the time, Younger worked for a public-private partnership called FirstNet, which provides interoperable broadband for first responders across the country. The month before Jan. 6, the FBI awarded a $92 million grant to FirstNet.

  Authorities quickly dispatched officers to the DNC located a few blocks away. A similar device reportedly was found on the ground between two benches outside one of the building’s entrances at 1:07 pm.

  In response, police immediately evacuated a few congressional buildings including the nearby Cannon House Office building. “I just had to evacuate my office because of a pipe bomb reported outside,” Virginia Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria tweeted at 1:46 p.m. “Supporters of the President are trying to force their way into the Capitol and I can hear what sounds like multiple gunshots. I don’t recognize our country today and the members of Congress who have supported this anarchy do not deserve to represent their fellow Americans.”

  The Capitol Police stated on Jan. 7 that both devices, which it said were “hazardous and could cause great harm to public safety,” were “disabled and turned over to the FBI for further investigation and analysis.” The FBI did not respond to a request for a report on the devices.

  The topic of the pipe bombs was raised repeatedly during the Department of Justice’s first press conference a few days later. In their joint appearance on Jan. 12, D’Antuono and acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin were asked by CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge whether the pipe bombs were a diversionary tactic to redirect police away from the site of the protest, or if the devices intended to kill or maim individuals working in both buildings. Sherwin responded that both scenarios would be explored during the investigation but he emphasized that the devices were “real” and contained “explosive igniters.”

  D’Antuono, who spearheaded the FBI’s Jan. 6 investigation including the pipe bombs, announced a $50,000 reward leading to the arrest of the perpetrator. “I just want to make that perfectly clear and that we’re looking at all angles in that. Every rock is being unturned, because we have to bring that person to justice or people to justice,” D’Antuono said.

  By the end of January 2021, the FBI released grainy footage of a person the government believed to be the bomber and upped the reward to a total of $75,000 – and which now stands at $500,000. 

  An individual, wearing a hoodie, a face mask, gloves, and Nike gym shoes, is seen carrying a backpack around the vicinity of both buildings. FBI authorities said the suspect planted the devices sometime between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5. Ashlan Benedict, head of D’Antuono’s ATF division, told CNN at the time that the bureau considered the investigation an urgent matter because the suspect “could potentially be building more bombs right now.”

  Intense media coverage followed. On Jan. 29, 2021, the Washington Post published an extensive story on the pipe bombs, assigning five of the paper’s top reporters to investigate the timeline and obtain private security camera footage from surrounding property owners.

  Months passed before D’Antuono’s office provided an update into the investigation. In September 2021, the FBI released more inconclusive security video obtained from a camera at the DNC showing the alleged suspect walking by the building and sitting on a bench next to where the bomb was discovered the next day. But the brief clip did not show the perpetrator removing anything from his backpack or placing a bomb on the ground.

  By the third anniversary of the Capitol protest, the FBI was still empty-handed. D’Antuono himself had become a target of media and congressional scrutiny over his handling of the Jan. 6 investigation and his involvement in the FBI-orchestrated plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.

  FBI Director Christopher Wray had promoted D’Antuono from head of the Detroit FBI field office – the office responsible for the key FBI agents, informants, and undercover employees responsible for executing the entrapment operation – to head of the Washington FBI office in October 2020.

  That case also involved the use of explosives. The FBI ran an undercover agent disguised as an explosives expert into the group of alleged kidnappers to lure them into attempting to buy components to build a bomb. Several of the men targeted by the FBI were arrested when the FBI’s lead informant drove them to meet the undercover agent acting as a bomb builder.

  Under questioning by House Republicans in 2023, D’Antuono, who retired from the FBI after Republicans won control of the House in November 2022 to take a job in the private sector, appeared less confident about the threat posed by the pipe bombs than he had in public statements. Asked by Rep. Tom Massie whether a one-hour kitchen timer, a component of both devices, could detonate a bomb 17 hours after it was set, D’Antuono said it could not.

  D’Antuono admitted he did not follow the “granularity” of his office’s inquiry into the pipe bomber case and also did not know if the FBI interviewed the person who discovered the device outside the DNC. 

  D’Antuono also testified that a search warrant failed to scoop up data of the alleged suspect, who is seen handling a cell phone on his walk in the vicinity. Stating the FBI did a “complete” geofence warrant for Jan. 6, D’Antuono disclosed that data from one company strangely was missing. “Some data that was corrupted by one of the providers, not purposely by them, right. It just – unusual circumstance that we have corrupt data from one of the providers. I’m not sure – I can’t remember right now which one. But for that day, which is awful because we don’t have that information to search. So could it have been that provider? Yeah, with our luck, you know, with this investigation it probably was.”

  Congressional Republicans say they were troubled by another aspect of D’Antuono’s testimony related to the allegedly corrupted file. While the FBI did issue a geofence warrant to obtain cell phone data from Google, there is no indication the warrant included Jan. 5 – the day the pipe bombs were allegedly planted.

  Public reporting and court filings in Jan. 6 cases indicate the warrant identified three specific time periods on Jan. 6, resulting in the collection of data from more than 5,000 devices, but did not request records for Jan. 5.

  “Mr. D’Antuono’s testimony raises concerns about the FBI’s handling of the pipe bomb investigation, more than 890 days following the placement of the pipe bombs. To date, the FBI has failed to respond to the Committee’s requests for a briefing regarding the investigation,” Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote in June 2023.

  Other aspects of the pipe bomb story started to raise eyebrows. After nearly a year of misleading judges and defendants, federal prosecutors revealed in late 2021 that Kamala Harris was at the DNC and not at the Capitol on Jan. 6; the government was forced to disclose her whereabouts to correct court filings that stated Harris was in the Capitol on the afternoon of Jan. 6. Harris left the Capitol following a Senate Intelligence Committee briefing and arrived at the DNC around 11:25 a.m. She remained inside the building until she was evacuated at 1:15 p.m. 

  The timeline generated even more head-scratchers. How did her security detail, which included Secret Service agents and D.C. Metropolitan police officers, miss the device sitting in relatively plain view?

  Did the Secret Service fail to perform a sweep of the premises before she arrived? Even so, how did numerous law enforcement agents not see a pipe bomb laying on the ground just feet from her parked motorcade?

  Further, security video posted this month by Revolver News showed law enforcement’s puzzling reaction to the discovery of the bomb at 1:07 p.m.

  “The most striking feature of the footage depicting the discovery of the DNC bomb is the utter nonchalance of the Secret Service officials, Metro PD officials, and Capitol Police officers upon learning of the proximity of the bomb,” Darren J. Beattie of Revolver wrote on Jan. 18. “The Metro PD officers didn’t even bother getting out of their vehicles for about a minute after being informed of the bomb and proceeded to stand around in the most lackadaisical fashion imaginable once getting out of the vehicles.”

  And according to Sean Gallagher, chief of the Protective Services Bureau of the Capitol Police, one of his plainclothes officers found the bomb after responding to the threat at neighboring RNC. “[One] of my counterintelligence teams that was doing enhanced sweeps around the DNC found a pipe bomb at the DNC as well,” Gallagher told the Jan. 6 committee in 2022. He also did not discuss with the committee Harris’ presence or any aid his division provided in ensuring her safe escape from the building.

  Even more puzzling is the fact Harris never mentions the episode in her public statements, even though she has compared Jan. 6 to Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Reporters also appear uninterested in the subject; Harris, more than three years later, hasn’t been asked about it.

  The Secret Service also is mum on the issue – and under suspicious circumstances. Text messages belonging to at least two dozen officials and agents from Jan. 5 and 6 were deleted at the end of January 2021 and never recovered. Jan. 6 committee investigators, when first informed the messages were purged during “a pre-planned, three-month system migration,” according to an agency spokesman, issued a subpoena for the missing records in July 2022, but the request came up empty. Committee investigators did not continue their inquiry further.

  This represents another aspect of the congressional investigation that did not reach an edifying conclusion. A suspected Trump supporter planted a bomb that could have killed the first female and person of color to hold the office of the vice presidency – and it only merited one sentence in an 840-page report.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 23:20

• Possibly The Most Overtly Racist Segment Ever On MSNBC
  Possibly The Most Overtly Racist Segment Ever On MSNBC

  The voting public, and especially the rural voting public, should brace themselves for an avalanche of mainstream media and punditry hate directed toward them in the months leading into the November election.

  A Thursday the below MSNBC segment was somewhat shocking even for the mainstream in terms of the extent a whole demographic of Americans was viciously attacked stereotyped and labeled as ‘all the same’. One online commenter rightly pointed out: “This might be the most overtly racist thing I’ve seen people say on TV.” Watch below:

  This might be the most overtly racist thing I’ve seen people say on TV… pic.twitter.com/ucPnlupa0e

  — EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) February 29, 2024

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  University of Maryland political science professor Thomas Schaller and op-ed writer Paul Waldman were in MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” studio to promote their new book titled, “White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy”. They repeatedly called Whites in the countryside and across the land “racist” and “anti-democracy”.

  “They are the most racist, xenophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-gay, geodemographic group in the country,” Schaller said. “Second, they’re the most conspiracist group. QAnon support and subscribers, election denialism, COVID denialism instead of scientific skepticism, Obama birtherism.” So all that… applied to an entire race of people living in rural areas.

  The aforementioned commenter “Educated Hillbilly” further highlighted that this particular segment is notable for being “far more in your face and blatant”. He complained, “I have not seen anyone on TV say all black city people are XYZ this blatantly racist way and be accepted on a mainstream so and get support from everyone while saying it.”

  The authors continued their rant, with Schaller saying further of White rural people, “They don’t believe in an independent press, free speech.”

  “They’re most likely to say the president should be able to act unilaterally without any checks from Congress, or the courts or the bureaucracy. They’re also the most strongly White nationalist and White Christian nationalist,” Schaller said. “Fourth, they’re most likely to excuse or justify violence as an acceptable alternative to peaceful public discourse.”

  Can you imagine thinking rural Appalachia is full of white rage and is threatening democracy?

  We are too busy trying to keep our kids from taking opioids laced with fentanyl bought from an illegal who moved into a house that was owned by a poor family who couldn’t pay their… https://t.co/ffZhUxmfz9

  — Margo (@MargoinWNC) February 28, 2024

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  As for co-author Waldman, he called Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump a “conduit for [White rural voters’] rage and anger.” 

  “All that [Trump] gave them was essentially a way to essentially give a big middle finger to Democrats, to people who live in cities and to the rest of the country,” he said.

  Sadly the road to November is likely be paved with much more of this elite corporate media racism unleashed on Trump supporters and “rural” or “poor” White people.

  * * *

  The examples are starting to pile up… just this week:

  

  And speaking of a big “middle finger” – this is how Washington Post reports on Alabamans’ legitimate concerns about where their tax-dollars go…

  Just an affluent stay at home mom, asking folks in one of the poorest states to give her more money to send overseas. Shocking that (eventually) someone gave her the finger.

  — Charles Rigler (@theBradRigler) March 1, 2024

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  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 22:45

• Americans Face Decades In Prison For Convincing Women Not To Have Abortions
  Americans Face Decades In Prison For Convincing Women Not To Have Abortions

  Authored by Beth Brelje via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Heather Idoni picked up a phone receiver and punched in her inmate number on a keypad to activate it through the visitation window at Grayson County Detention Center.

  

  She had 15 minutes to talk before the sound was cut off without warning and her guests were told to leave.

  In prison, every move an inmate makes is controlled. Ms. Idoni, 59, is getting used to that. She must, because she is facing more than 41 years in prison—the rest of her natural life.

  Her sentence is expected to be the longest in the United States for someone charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, a 1994 law that prohibits interfering with anyone obtaining or providing “reproductive health services.” It was seldom used until the Supreme Court’s decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization reversed Roe v. Wade in June 2022, which returned abortion regulation to the states.

  Her crime: sitting near or in front of the doors of abortion clinics to give sidewalk counselors a few moments to talk to women before their abortion appointments and potentially change their minds. Nine women out of 10 give them the middle finger and keep walking, Ms. Idoni said. But some women do change their minds, and sidewalk counselors say the life of every baby saved is worth the risk.

  But a decade or more in prison is an outcome Ms. Idoni and other abortion rescuers didn’t expect. In post-Roe America, pro-lifers have been served harsh, life-altering penalties.

  “I have young, young grandchildren,” Ms. Idoni told The Epoch Times. “They are not going to have any memory of me. It’s hard to think about. It is the most painful thing, being separated from my young grandchildren who are growing so fast, and I’m missing their lives.”

  Before prison, Ms. Idoni owned a bookstore in Linden, Michigan. She is a mother of 16, including 10 orphaned boys she adopted from Ukraine.

  In 2022, at least 26 pro-life activists were charged under the FACE Act, and many are now in prison or awaiting sentencing. Most were charged after June 2022, when President Joe Biden formed the Reproductive Rights Task Force, a Department of Justice-led group focused, in part, on enforcing the act. The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.

  Political watchers predict the emotional issue of abortion will be a top 2024 election topic in most races.

  Civil Disobedience

  Ms. Idoni was convicted in 2023, along with four other defendants in Washington, of a FACE Act offense and of felony conspiracy against rights.The group blocked the entrance to a late-term abortion business in 2020. The DOJ said the group entered the facility and blocked access using their bodies, furniture, chains, and ropes, then live-streamed their activity on social media. The DOJ considered live-streaming a felony conspiracy, which carries a 10-year penalty. The FACE violation adds another year. Sentencing is in May.

  But after her trial in Washington, Ms. Idoni and five others were convicted for praying and singing hymns in the hallway of a now-closed abortion business in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. This will be considered a prior conviction and could add years to the sentence out of Washington. She awaits another trial for two FACE violations in Michigan.

  

  “The Tennessee case highlights how absurd the situation has become, using FACE in that weaponized fashion against the pro-lifers who obviously are political opponents of this administration,” Stephen Crampton, senior counsel for the Thomas More Society, told The Epoch Times. “To throw in that 10-year federal conspiracy charge in a case that, if you’re just looking at it cold, is indistinguishable from a civil rights sit-in.”

  Mr. Crampton is an attorney in the Tennessee case, which was tried in Nashville, where in 1960, black citizens engaged in civil disobedience by sitting at lunch counters to protest racial segregation.

  “There is a Civil Rights Museum in the middle of the public library right across the street from the courthouse—a big display, honoring as heroes those folks that engaged in sit-ins in Nashville and helped change the whole culture of the nation,” Mr. Crampton said.

  “In the same breath, they make our [clients] martyrs because they engaged in a sit-in, not for advancing racial equality but for trying to save the life of an unborn child. … If that’s not political, I don’t know how else to describe it.”

  The abortion business affiliated with the Tennessee FACE charges was closed before the DOJ served any indictments because abortion is no longer legal in Tennessee.

  No matter how one feels about abortion, Americans should care about what happens with the FACE Act, Mr. Crampton said.

  

  “The fact that the government has picked … which causes to federalize and to maximize prison sentences for—today, it’s pro-lifers, but tomorrow, hey, maybe it’s Greenpeace, right? Maybe it’s the PETA folks with animal rights, and all of a sudden you’re facing 11 years in prison because they don’t like your cause,” Mr. Crampton said.

  “Is this really something that we want our federal government doing?”

  Repealing FACE

  The FACE Act has been used 130 times against pro-life individuals, but it has only been used three times against pro-abortion protesters, a U.S. Senate aide told The Epoch Times on background.

  “There’s certainly a disparity in how this is being enforced,” the aide said. “In the wake of the Dobbs decision being leaked, there are at least 108 Catholic churches and at least 78 pregnancy-resource centers that were attacked by pro-abortion protesters.

  “But there were only three FACE Act cases opened in response to that. So it’s very clear, just on the numbers alone, that this is being enforced in a very political way, and that the DOJ is weaponizing it against pro-life individuals and ignoring it when it comes to pro-abortion individuals.”

  Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who is sponsoring legislation that would repeal the FACE Act, pointed to the fact that legal scholars have long questioned the act’s constitutionality. He said the Biden administration has recently used it as a tool to harass and prosecute pro-life activists. His House bill is called the Restoring the First Amendment and Right to Peaceful Civil Disobedience Act.

  

  Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) has a companion bill in the House.

  While there was interest when the Senate bill was introduced in October 2023, it has not had much momentum since then. The aide isn’t optimistic about the measure passing in the Senate.

  “Without a Republican majority, there is just no way that that’s going to get through,” which means those imprisoned under the FACE Act may face long sentences, the aide said.

  “They are suffering from the political fallout of this law that really shouldn’t exist in the first place, and that has absolutely been weaponized against one group and not another.”

  FBI Raid

  Mark Houck, a father of seven, was shocked the morning of Sept. 23, 2022, when a team of roughly 25 FBI agents pounded on his door, pointed guns at him and arrested him for an alleged FACE Act violation.

  Mr. Houck was a long-time sidewalk counselor at a Philadelphia abortion business. He pushed a volunteer at that business after the man made vulgar comments to Mr. Houck’s son and wouldn’t stop. Although local police refused to bring charges in the case, the DOJ said the shove was a FACE violation. A jury disagreed and found Mr. Houck not guilty. For months before the verdict, however, he faced a potential prison term. Now he is running for a U.S. congressional seat in Pennsylvania.

  “We would not be running if that had not happened to me,” Mr. Houck told The Epoch Times. “That wasn’t my personal aspiration. But after the raid, and the government coming after me, and the government being weaponized against me, we decided that we want to run so that this doesn’t happen to anybody else.”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 22:10

• Trump Trounces Haley In Idaho, Missouri, And Michigan
  Trump Trounces Haley In Idaho, Missouri, And Michigan

  Donald Trump dominated in Saturday’s primary races, inning caucuses in Idaho and Missouri – while sweeping the delegate haul at a Michigan party convention.

  

  The former president earned every delegate at stake on Saturday, bringing his overall count to 244 vs. Nikki Haley’s 24. To secure the Republican nomination, Trump will need 1,215 delegates in total.

  In Michigan, Trump won all 39 delegates at the Republican convention in Grand Rapids, after winning the state’s primary on Tuesday with 68% of the vote vs. Haley’s 27%.

  In Missouri, Trump won 51 delegates. Things went particularly not well for Haley at one point:

  The steep odds facing Haley were on display in Columbia, Missouri, where Republicans gathered at a church to caucus.

  Seth Christensen stood on stage and called on them to vote for Haley. He wasn’t well received.

  Another caucusgoer shouted out from the audience: “Are you a Republican?”

  An organizer quieted the crowd and Christensen finished his speech. Haley went on to win just 37 of the 263 Republicans in attendance in Boone County. -AP

  

  Earlier in the day, Missouri Trump supporters inside a church in Columbia linked up to appeal for the former president.

  “Every 100 days, we’re spending $1 trillion, with money going all over the world. Illegals are running across the border,” said Tom Mendenall, an elector for Trump in 2016 and 2020. “You know where Donald Trump stands on a lot of these issues.”

  And in Iowa, Trump won 32 delegates, once again smoking Haley.

  Next on deck is a Republican event on Sunday in the District of Columbia (they have Republicans?), followed by Super Tuesday two days later, when 16 states will hold primaries – and the date Haley suggested she’d be dropping out if things don’t start going her way.

  This is going to be fun, no? From tonight’s speech in Virginia:

  President Trump: “With your vote, we will throw out Bidenomics… and we will reinstate MAGANOMICS!” pic.twitter.com/qNlLtupYWM

  — Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) March 3, 2024

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  LMFAO!!! OH MY GOD! pic.twitter.com/FwF0vZHTXh

  — Bad Hombre (@joma_gc) March 3, 2024

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  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 21:35

• They Called Him "Crooked Cohen": Thacker
  They Called Him “Crooked Cohen”: Thacker

  Authored by Paul Thacker via The Disinformation Chronicle,

  The COVID pandemic created some of the worst science writing in our lifetimes. Major media outlets failed at providing readers with accurate and balanced news across a host of issues, including vaccines, masks, lockdowns and how the virus likely began spreading through the human population.

  

  It’s critical to call the news we read over the last four years “science writing” and not “reporting” because few science media outlets do any actual reporting. What science writers label “reporting’ is just calling up the known experts and then quoting them as the known experts.

  As I’ve noted in the past: Science writers report for, not on science.

  Looking back over the last four years of science writing claptrap, I ran across an early article by Science Magazine writer Jon Cohen that illustrates this point quite nicely. On January 31, 2020, Cohen wrote a story for Science Magazine alleging that “most researchers say” the virus could not have come from a lab, an idea Cohen added, had been dismissed as a “conspiracy theory.”

  However, Cohen’s “most researchers say” assertion was totally phony. How do we know this?

  We have the emails.

  “[S]ome of the features (potentially) look engineered,” a virologist wrote in a private email, the day after Cohen quoted him in his “most researchers say” article for Science Magazine.

  That same day after Science Magazine published Cohen’s article—this would be February 1, 2020—Anthony Fauci emailed NIH officials detailing what “most researchers say” when they were talking to him on a conference call: they fretted that the virus was not natural, might have had a mutation inserted into the sequence, and their fears were heightened because scientists in Wuhan were running dangerous gain-of-function studies on coronaviruses.

  Since Cohen wrote that January 2020 article, he has only doubled and tripled down with further allegations that the virus could not have escaped from a Wuhan lab.

  As Ashley Rindsberg reported in Tablet, an anonymous whistleblower tipped off Cohen that one of the critical papers virologists published to allege the pandemic could not have started in a lab was apparently corrupt and did not list the true authors (Treason of the Science Journals). Instead of doing anything with the information, Cohen dimed out the whistleblower and forwarded the allegations on to the virologists: “Here’s what one person who claims to have inside knowledge is saying behind your backs …”

  After this story went public, several accounts on X began referring to the Science Magazine staff writer as “Crooked Cohen” a label that eventually forced him off the social media app.

  Cohen’s ham-fisted, biased attempt at journalism, however, remains a singular example of pandemic science writing gone awry. So let’s take a look at that early article he wrote.

  Emails: The bane of science writers

  In the pandemic’s opening weeks, reporters scrambled to understand how the virus first began circulating in humans. Most outbreaks start when a virus, circulating in animals, adapts to the human body and then spreads to infect the rest of us. But the Washington Post reported in January 2020, that people were speculating on social media whether the pandemic started naturally or not.

  Based on emails, we now know that some scientists were even concerned whether the virus came from a Wuhan lab.

  But on January 31, 2020, Science Magazine’s Jon Cohen tried to shoot down such thinking in a misleading feature that ignored scientists’ own opinions. (Mining coronavirus genomes for clues to the outbreak’s origins: Theories abound about how the virus that’s now rampant in China made its way from bats (almost certainly) to humans.)

  Here’s the second paragraph of Cohen’s story:

  “One of the biggest takeaway messages [from the viral sequences] is that there was a single introduction into humans and then human-to-human spread,” says Trevor Bedford, a bioinformatics specialist at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The role of Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, in spreading 2019-nCoV remains murky, though such sequencing, combined with sampling the market’s environment for the presence of the virus, is clarifying that it indeed had an important early role in amplifying the outbreak. The viral sequences, most researchers say, also knock down the idea the pathogen came from a virology institute in Wuhan.

  Note three allegations in this paragraph:

  1. The virus entered the human population and then began spreading

  2. The Huanan Seafood Market is critical

  3. “Most researchers say” the virus sequences serve to “knock down” the idea that the virus came from a Wuhan lab.

  Cohen also quotes two researchers: Kristian Andersen with Scripps Research, and Eddie Holmes with the University of Sydney.

  The paragraph with Andersen serves to further enforce the idea that the virus didn’t come from a lab, and jumped from a wild animal (natural host) into humans.

  “Until you consistently isolate the virus out of a single species, it’s really, really difficult to try and determine what the natural host is,” says Kristian Andersen, an evolutionary biologist at Scripps Research.

  The paragraph quoting Eddie Holmes serves the same purpose: further enforcing the notion that the virus wasn’t engineered and didn’t come from a lab, but jumped from a wild animal into humans.

  “The positive tests from the wet market are hugely important,” says Edward Holmes, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Sydney who collaborated with the first group to publicly release a 2019-nCoV sequence. “Such a high rate of positive tests would strongly imply that animals in the market played a key role in the emergence of the virus.”

  In case the narrative wasn’t already clear, Cohen then addressed “conspiracy theories” about the pandemic beginning from lab research.

  The Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is the premier lab in China that studies bat and human coronaviruses, has also come under fire. “Experts debunk fringe theory linking China’s coronavirus to weapons research,” read a headline on a story in The Washington Post that focused on the facility.

  Well, here’s the funny thing. Emails show that Cohen’s “reporting” was totally wrong-headed.

  The day after Cohen published his “most researchers say” piece to “knock down” the “conspiracy theory” that the virus could have come from a lab, Kristian Andersen—the same one quoted in Cohen’s story!—emailed Anthony Fauci.

  “[S]ome of the features (potentially) look engineered,” Andersen wrote to Fauci. “Eddie Bob, Mike, and myself all find the genome inconsistent with expectations from evolutionary theory.

  

  The Eddie, Bob, and Mike are researchers Eddie Holmes (who Cohen quoted in his “most researcher say” story), Bob Garry (a virologist at Tulane Medical School) and Michael Worobey (evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona).

  Yet none of Eddie, Bob, and Mike’s concerns that the COVID virus was engineered can be found in Cohen’s “most researchers say” article. Even though Cohen quotes Kristian Andersen and Eddie Holmes in the piece.

  Oh, but it gets better.

  Fauci responds to Andersen’s email, “Thanks, Kristian. Talk soon on the call.”

  According to an email sent to Fauci by Jeremey Farrar of the Wellcome Trust, attendees on the call were to include Kristian Andersen, Eddie Holmes, and Bob Garry, as well as the following:

  • Christian Drosten, Director of the Institute of Virology at the Charité Hospital in Berlin

  • Ron Fouchier, Deputy Head of the Erasmus MC department of Viroscience

  • Marion Koopmans, Dutch virologist who is Head of the Erasmus MC Department of Viroscience

  • Patrick Valance, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of the United Kingdom

  In short, the conference call attendees were a collection of experts that any reporter would call if they were going to write a “most researchers say” article about how the pandemic started.

  Well, guess what?

  After that call ended, Fauci sent an email detailing what he learned “most researchers say,” noting that NIH-Director Francis Collins was also listening in. Here’s Fauci:

  They were concerned about the fact that upon viewing the sequences of several isolates of the nCoV, there were mutations in the virus that would be most unusual to have evolved naturally in the bats and there was a suspicion that this mutation was intentionally inserted. The suspicion was heightened by the fact that scientists in Wuhan University are known to have been working on gain-of-function experiments to determine the molecular mechanisms associated with bat viruses adapting to human infection, and the outbreak originated in Wuhan.

  In short, here’s what “most researchers say” when their thoughts are not being stage-managed by Jon Cohen and the editors at Science Magazine:

  1. Mutations in the COVID virus do not appear to be natural;

  2. There was suspicion that a mutation was inserted into the virus;

  3. These suspicions were heightened because Wuhan scientists were doing dangerous gain-of-function research and the outbreak began in Wuhan.

  

  Of course, only Jon Cohen knows why his “most researchers say” reporting was so phony and misguided.

  I sent him an email asking him to explain, and got back an angry retort that ran over 800 words. Here’s one pertinent passage: “Andersen and Fauci did not share these concerns with me at the time, and if they had—and I wish they had–I certainly would have quoted them saying as much.”

  “Jon, you seem upset,” I replied. “If Andersen and Fauci didn’t tell you what they were thinking, why are you directing anger at me? Have you asked them why they misled you? How are you going to hold them accountable to readers?”

  Jon emailed back that I was twisting his words.

  To this day, a majority of American remain concerned that the COVID pandemic started because scientists were screwing around in a lab with dangerous viruses and something went haywire. And these suspicions remain because virologists worked to gaslight anyone who raised this as a possibility—a propaganda campaign that was aided by their friends in science writing.

  AT THE REQUEST OF A LONGTIME READER, JON COHEN’S EMAIL TO ME. JON SEEMS UPSET BY MY QUESTIONS, BUT NOT AT ANTHONY FAUCI, KRISTIAN ANDERSEN, AND EDDIE HOLMES FOR MISLEADING HIM.

  WHY IS THAT?

  Paul,

  

  Despite your inaccurate, incessant, snarky, juvenile attempts to deride me and my work, I am going to explain this to you because it’s so wide of the mark. I anticipate that you will twist whatever I say here to fit the narrative you have wedded yourself to, but, well, color me generous and thoughtful.

  The story you are citing from, written in the first month of the outbreak becoming public, is questioning all origin possibilities and stresses that the market theory remains uncertain. It also is one of the first stories that, without bias, raises the lab origin possibility and WIV’s potential role:

  Concerns about the institute predate this outbreak. Nature ran a story in 2017 about it building a new biosafety level 4 lab and included molecular biologist Richard Ebright of Rutgers University, Piscataway, expressing concerns about accidental infections, which he noted repeatedly happened with lab workers handling SARS in Beijing. Ebright, who has a long history of raising red flags about studies with dangerous pathogens, also in 2015 criticized an experiment in which modifications were made to a SARS-like virus circulating in Chinese bats to see whether it had the potential to cause disease in humans. Earlier this week, Ebright questioned the accuracy of Bedford’s calculation that there are at least 25 years of evolutionary distance between RaTG13—the virus held in the Wuhan virology institute—and 2019-nCoV, arguing that the mutation rate may have been different as it passed through different hosts before humans. Ebright tells ScienceInsider that the 2019-nCoV data are “consistent with entry into the human population as either a natural accident or a laboratory accident.”

  The sentence fragment you have selected comes from a paragraph that further emphasizes that the market theory is “murky”:

  “One of the biggest takeaway messages [from the viral sequences] is that there was a single introduction into humans and then human-to-human spread,” says Trevor Bedford, a bioinformatics specialist at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The role of Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, in spreading 2019-nCoV remains murky, though such sequencing, combined with sampling the market’s environment for the presence of the virus, is clarifying that it indeed had an important early role in amplifying the outbreak. The viral sequences, most researchers say, also knock down the idea the pathogen came from a virology institute in Wuhan.

  Unlike you, I had covered infectious diseases and outbreaks for several decades when this one surfaced, which means I regularly speak with many researchers who work in the field. That’s why I wrote what I did. (You, strikingly, didn’t know who Redfield was, and when you discovered him, you ignored his troubled past, which occupies a chapter in my 2001 book, Shots in the Dark, about reporting I did in the early 1990s.) Andersen and Fauci did not share these concerns with me at the time, and if they had—and I wish they had–I certainly would have quoted them saying as much. I had no bias toward it being a natural origin, and I do not until this day. As I have said repeatedly, I would be happy to break a story about compelling evidence that this was a lab leak, and I have closely examined every theory. 

  You are a believer. You chide me for not being a journalist, but you have abandoned journalism to push an agenda, and you rely heavily on sources who have the same convictions. Let me be clear: I am not wounded by your campaign to defame and libel me—have at it. I have a body of work that speaks for itself (your #scicomm thing demonstrates you haven’t read much of it), and I’m too old to care about criticism that’s not based on fact. But I just did a quick search to remind myself of why I find your criticism of my work feckless, mendacious, and filled with unbridled rage:

  We don’t play by the same rules. I strive to be fair and accurate. You preach to a choir, gleefully attacking people you deem miscreants with toxic rants, and have convinced yourself that you know the truth about something that remains a mystery. You blithely ignore mistakes made by journalists who are in the choir. You jump up and down about scientists behaving like scientists and changing their minds when new evidence surfaces. You seem to lack the interest in complicated science to assess claims yourself, relying entirely on people you view as reliable experts to judge the worth of arguments and counterarguments. And you remain mum about outrageous behavior by China that doesn’t support your beliefs: Have you ever written about the proven coverup of the wildlife for sale at the market, the scientifically preposterous assertion that the virus came from outside of China through the cold chain, or the absence of traceback studies from the wildlife  stalls we know sold these animals? 

  In closing, I have written about or referenced most every lab leak theory, and I have organized panel discussions with scientists and journalists who have different points of view. I think civility matters. I would encourage you to be more civil to me and others who you disdain.

  Jon

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 21:00

• Is A Mag7 'Gamma Squeeze' About To Send Bitcoin 'To The Moon'?
  Is A Mag7 ‘Gamma Squeeze’ About To Send Bitcoin ‘To The Moon’?

  Making money in the markets over the past few months has really come down to four simple steps:

  Step 1: Put on pants.

  Step 2: Identify buzzy stock-du-jour.

  Step 3: Buy metric fuckton of deep OTM, extremely short-dated calls.

  Step 4: Sit back, sip coffee, take profits after gamma squeeze complete.

  Sounds to simple to be true, right?

  Here’s Goldman Sachs’ flows guru reflecting on the situation:

  

  And, everyone’s searching for “call options”…

  

  At first it appeared to be SoftBank up to its old tricks…

  Holy shit, that sociopath really did it again. https://t.co/OsWXOxOl5e pic.twitter.com/uHC6X8If5Y

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 13, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  But then, day after day, a different name was picked and gamma-squeeze-algo unleashed on poor unsuspecting dealers…

  Of course, the ‘buzz’ recently has been ‘AI’ stocks…

  ARM Holdings call volume exploding as the stock ramped over 100% in 4 days…

  

  SoundHound AI stocks soared a stunning 330% in the last two weeks as call volumes literally went to the moon…

  

  Even boring old DELL is in on the act with gamma-squeezers buying calls with both hands and feet, sending the stock up 36% in 3 days…

  

  Careful though – it doesn’t always work.

  Palo Alto Networks disappointed after the call-buying-brigade has gone wild into earnings and that shitshow left the stock (critical to AI) down 28% in a day (but we do note that since that decline, the gamma-guys didn’t give up, pumping the stock up 20% in the last few days on the back even more call-buying)…

  

  And then there’s the big boy – NVDA – where we see call-volume spike into earnings every time, but this time was special as the put-denying-pumpers pushed the giant AI chip maker up 17% in 2 days after this massive call-buying-gasm…

  

  “The call volume is very extreme,” said Piper Sandler head of options, Daniel Kirsch, referencing interest in Nvidia.

  “People seem to just — every day — have no problem continuing to add.”

  Finally, just so you get the point, here’s SMCI – probably the ultimate poster-boy for gamma-squeezers in the last month as the stock rallied 222% practically without a dip as day-after-day, the deep OTM, short-dated cal-buying worked to squeeze dealers to chase the stock higher and higher…

  

  But, with all this upside call buying – and no downside protection buying – skews have collapsed to a point that some are anxious of another systemic crisis in equity-vol land…

  Last time skew was this low was on Feb 5, 2018, a few hours before Volmageddon sent the VIX from 14 to 40 pic.twitter.com/gQEn8zpXny

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 11, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  So, maybe, just maybe, the ‘squeezers’ got out of bed this last week, put on their pants, and noticed that the buzzy-stock-du-jour was actually bitcoin ETFs (and bitcoin itself).

  Which is where we find ourselves now.

  UNless you lived under a rock – or are marooned, powerless in Lake Tahoe – right now, you will have likely read/watched news about crypto’s impressive gains in the last two weeks…

  

  …as the newly-launched Spot Bitcoin ETFs has seen unprecedented net inflows…

  

  Putting this sudden ‘demand’ in context…

  

  Heading for a blowout year…

  

  And this is ahead of the Halving, which implicitly hampers supply.

  “All things are pointing towards if momentum keeps us going up, then we could see another violent move upwards,” said Luke Nolan, a research associate at digital-asset manager CoinShares.

  So applying the four-step logic from above – what do you think would be the most likely next target for the gamma-squeezers?

  Bitcoin options volumes are exploding higher…

  

  Source: Deribit

  And notional options open interest has hit a new high…

  

  Source: Deribit

  As Yahoo Finance reports, an influx of buyers for short-dated options has increased Bitcoin volatility to the highest since last year’s collapse of crypto-friendly Silvergate and Signature banks. The notional value of the March 29 call and put options contracts has climbed to around $7 billion, far above the amount of any other contracts on a specific expiration date, according to data from Amberdata (and call volumes are dominating puts in the shortest-dated maturities)…

  

  Source: Deribit

  “We can see still a huge amount of OTM (out of money) calls,” Nolan said.

  “If Bitcoin pushes to levels near that, then in my opinion we could certainly get a squeeze.”

  To put it simply, if a large amount of call options are bought, the sellers of the options, usually dealers or market makers, need to hedge their exposure. The usual way to hedge is to buy the underlying instrument so that they are not exposed to directional risk, Nolan said. If Bitcoin starts going up, the dealers will have to hedge further, thus buying more of the underlying token.

  “This self-perpetuating loop can lead to a rapid price increase as dealers push the price up, causing them to have to buy more,” Nolan said.

  But, Nolan warns, even a small change in ETF flows could cause people to quickly deleverage.

  “It works both ways,” he said.

  But, there are three good reasons to believe the ammunition for a gamma-squeeze is still there – Technicals (short positioning), Supply (Halving) and Demand (ETF flows and institutional adoption).

  For one, funding rates are through the roof (implying a large demand for shorting bitcoin)… which implicitly provides support for the gamma-squeezers to the upside if it morphs into a short-squeeze…

  We’ve had to (possibly temporarily) add a new color to the funding rate heatmap for >100% APR: pic.twitter.com/8GIn1C5SHY

  — Velo (@VeloData) February 29, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  In fact we’ve already seen very heavy short-liquidation driving this move…

  

  Source: CoinGlass

  Another factor supporting bitcoin from here is the upcoming Halving, and as the stock-to-flow model shows, we have reverted back to fair-value just as the supply-shrink is about to occur….

  

  Source: @PlanB

  As @PlanB explains below, we are entering a ‘bull market’ with “face-melting FOMO and extreme price pumps”... hyperbole?

  And then there is demand as institutional interest accelerates and retail adoption improves.

  “I think there’s an even bigger wave coming in a few months as we start to see the major wirehouses turn on,” Bitwise’s CIO Matt Hougan explained in a Feb. 29 interview with CNBC, adding that the first wave of Bitcoin ETF interest has primarily come from retail, hedge funds and independent financial advisors.

  “So we’re going to see the next wave of institutional capital coming,” said Hougan, who referred to the ETFs as Bitcoin’s “IPO moment.”

  “With #Bitcoin right now … there is too much demand and not enough supply.” – Matt Hougan, CIO Bitwise pic.twitter.com/1B0joUQ1Pp

  — Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) February 29, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The supply-demand dynamic is just “off the hook,” Hougan said of the amount of Bitcoin ETFs purchased relative to Bitcoin mined day-to-day and the upcoming halving event.

  “There’s too much demand and not enough supply.”

  When asked how high, Hougan said Bitcoin could blow Bitwise’s initial 2024 prediction of $80,000 out of the park and reach anywhere between $100,000 to $200,000 or even higher.

  While many have welcomed Bitcoin ETFs, some major U.S. players like Merrill Lynch are still blocking clients from being able to access the investment products. Vanguard, the world’s second-largest largest asset manager, also blocks access to Bitcoin ETFs through its platform due to the firm’s “philosophy” around investing.

  “I’m sure pressure is mounting for them,” tweeted Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas on Thursday, noting that recent ETF flows are likely “natural demand” for BTC rather than algorithmic buying.

  “They like to see [a] track record and get paid off, but with grassroots demand like this they [are] gonna have to expedite,” he continued.

  And Bitcoin is hitting record highs around the world.

  Bitcoin has passed all-time highs in 30+ countries, including China and India. pic.twitter.com/63CnC9DE0F

  — Balaji (@balajis) February 28, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Japan has been a particularly weak case, with a 24% decline in the yen meaning bitcoin hit a record price in that country well before this week’s fireworks that saw bitcoin prices soar.

  “Japan’s government has been devaluing the yen, and the flow of liquidity has trickled into bitcoin as their fiat has weakened,” March Zheng, Managing partner of Bizantine Capital explained in an interview with CoinDesk.

  With The Fed hinting at the next QE on Friday (Reverse Twist), will we see ‘record highs’ in the USD price for bitcoin soon too?

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 20:25

• Kenya & Haiti Sign Agreement To Deploy Force To Caribbean Nation
  Kenya & Haiti Sign Agreement To Deploy Force To Caribbean Nation

  Via The Libertarian Institute,

  The leaders of Kenya and Haiti inked a pact for a Kenya-led UN mission to the Caribbean nation. Nairobi plans to send 1,000 armed men, dubbed police officers, to Port-au-Prince as local authorities have all but lost control of Haiti’s capital city. The Joe Biden administration has been working for several years to create a UN force to invade Haiti to restore order. 

  In October, at Washington’s urging, the UN Security Council approved a resolution that authorized Kenya to lead a UN police force in Haiti to return power to Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who has faced months of violent unrest in the wake of the 2021 assassination of President Jovenal Moise.

  

  The people of Haiti did not elect the government in Port-au-Prince. Not long after Moise’s murder, then-Prime Minister Claud Joseph resigned at the behest of Western pressure, allowing Henry to assume power in his stead.

  Since then, armed gangs have seized control over most of the city under Henry’s watch, at times occupying critical infrastructure, including its main port.

  After the UNSC approved the force, opposition leader Ekuru Aukot in Nairobi challenged President William Ruto’s decision to send Kenyans to Haiti. In January, the Kenyan High Court ruled in favor of Aukot, blocking the deployment. 

  The president later declared he could skirt the ruling by inking a pact directly with Port-au-Prince. That “reciprocal” agreement was signed on Friday. Ruto said he and Henry “discussed the next steps to enable the fast-tracking of the deployment,” though the leaders did not offer a timeline for the operation. 

  The US-backed plan to send Kenyans to Haiti has met opposition in Port-au-Prince in addition to Nairobi. Haitians have protested Henry’s request for the UN deployment, as UN peacekeepers in Haiti have a legacy of rampant sexual abuses and, causing a cholera outbreak that killed thousands.

  Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince saw another day of fighting as gangs looked to oust Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Gunmen targeted the international airport and police stations, forcing residents to flee their homes. pic.twitter.com/dcsXExWApw

  — DW News (@dwnews) March 2, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  “The Haitian people have kept the bitter taste of a foreign force in charge of our situation: theft, rape, cholera, food dependence, deregulation of the economic system, without mentioning the fact that we don’t remember seeing then-gang leaders be arrested or rendered unable to do harm,” a Haitian think tank, Groupe de Travail sur la Securite (the Security Working Group), said of Henry’s initial request.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 19:50

• We Must Grow Our Aerospace Workforce
  We Must Grow Our Aerospace Workforce

  Authored by Felix Aviles via RealClear Wire,

  The aerospace industry desperately needs young talent if we expect it to grow, innovate, and continue providing the services we need and expect in the modern era. The jobs are plentiful, but the skilled workers are not. The leaders of the industry must do a better job of communicating with the next generation of aviation pilots, machinists, and mechanics. If they don’t, the future of aerospace is in jeopardy.

  

  A recently released industry report a detailed that “the aircraft mechanic shortage has reached a critical point” and the outlook for growth is precarious. This is detrimental not only to commercial aviation, but also national defense aviation. Without mechanics to service the U.S. aerial fleet, it’s essentially useless.

  In his testimony to the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee last fall, Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness Ashish Vazirani said that the Pentagon missed its recruiting goals by roughly 41,000 recruits. He also noted that “the all-volunteer force faces one of its greatest challenges since inception” in 1973. As our fighting forces shrink, so does the number of skilled machinists, technicians and pilots that are trained to service our defense aircraft. This is exacerbating an already critical problem.

  I spent my aviation career as an F-15 technician and crew chief in the U.S. Air Force (USAF), and later I was hired by McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Company which eventually merged with Boeing. Working on this first-class fighter jet gave me opportunities I never imagined, including traveling to Saudi Arabia to support and train officers in the maintenance of the F-15s for the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) working on the F-15 C/D models. This is the most successful fighter jet in the world with an unbeaten combat record.

  America’s younger generation has so much to offer. The technologies that have developed since I began my career have advanced tremendously, and today’s young people are already masters of it. The sky is the limit, literally. But they can’t seize on aerospace careers if they don’t know about them.

  Now is the time for the aerospace industry to make a concerted effort to increase awareness about the fulfilling, family-supporting opportunities in aviation. For too many years, the message to our young people has been you need to go to college to succeed. While that may be the right path for some, it’s not the only path to success. Especially when you consider that the cost of a traditional college education has increased by nearly 150% since the 1960s.

  Aerospace companies have been partnering with colleges and universities to create training programs that help directly fill open trades positions directly upon completion. Similarly, the U.S. service branches have been pounding the pavement, trying to reach young people and educate them on all the opportunities available through military service. However, more must be done. The skilled worker shortages get worse every day, stagnating the industry and creating a substantial national defense concern.

  Industry leaders, elected officials, and those currently in the field must do what they can to meet our young people where they are. We must share our success stories, promote training programs, and offer guidance and advice to students who could become contributors and innovators in the industry. The problem won’t resolve overnight, but we can make incremental improvements if we work together.

  Felix Aviles is a U.S. Air Force veteran, a single-engine pilot, and a Boeing retired F-15 technician. He currently resides in Tucson, AZ.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 18:40

• Negotiators Scramble To Rescue Gaza Hostage Talks As Refugee Area Struck In New Israeli Air Raid
  Negotiators Scramble To Rescue Gaza Hostage Talks As Refugee Area Struck In New Israeli Air Raid

  Negotiators involved in Qatari-mediated peace efforts between Israel and Hamas are said to be scrambling to salvage talks after the deadly aid convoy incident. The death toll from that Thursday incident has reportedly risen to 118. President Biden has said he hopes a deal can be reached by the start of the Muslim season of Ramadan, which begins March 10.

  “We’re not there yet,” he told reporters Friday. The Wall Street Journal has reported on the emerging disappointment and fear that talks have been utterly stalled. “Talks between Israel, Hamas and their mediators were expected to kick into high gear as the two sides try to reach a cease-fire for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan…,” the Saturday report describes. Meanwhile Al Jazeera reports of a new mass casualty attack near Rafah:

  At least 11 Palestinians were killed and 50 wounded when an Israeli air raid directly hit tents housing displaced people in Tal as-Sultan, Rafah, an area previously designated as “safe”.

  

  However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Qatari and Egyptian officials that the Israeli side will not participate in another round of talks until Hamas confirms a full list of living hostages still being held in Gaza.

  Axios reported on Friday, “Israel made it clear to Egypt and Qatar that it will not hold another round of talks until Hamas presents a list of the hostages who are alive.”

  Israeli officials said: “There is no point in starting another round of talks until we receive the lists of which of the hostages are alive and until Hamas gives its answer regarding the ‘ratio’ that defines how many prisoners will be released for each hostage.”

  This has been a key part of the hold up all along: disagreements over numbers and the iterative phases of planned exchanges. Additionally Hamas has been requiring that all Israeli troops withdraw from the Gaza Strip first, something which Netanyahu has called “delusional”.

  “Hamas officials have told negotiators that in the coming days they may propose new figures for how many Palestinian prisoners they expect to receive in exchange for roughly 40 Israeli hostages,” according to more from the WSJ. “The latest framework being discussed in Cairo involves exchanging about 400 Palestinian prisoners for 40 of the hostages still held captive in Gaza, including five female Israeli soldiers.”

  On Tuesday President Biden raised eyebrows in hastily and seemingly prematurely declaring his hope that a truce deal between Hamas and Israel would be achieved by Monday.

  But now this is even less likely, though that timetable was acknowledged as unrealistic by all parties in response. On Thursday the president walked back the statement. And now he’s opted to stick with the ‘hopefully’ by Ramadan timeline. 

  ⚡️Another massacre in Rafah… pic.twitter.com/bUPmdIa309

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 2, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  But there are now new reports of Israeli bombings of Palestinian tent encampments – in what looks like a dense urban or suburban area of Rafah – with horrific and tragic footage [warning: graphic] widely circulating, which will make successful talks between Hamas and Israel even less likely to progress. 

  * * *

  Below is a list of more of the latest developments via Al Jazeera:

  • The US carried out its first airdrop of aid into Gaza, according to US officials, with three C-130 planes dropping some 35,000 meals.
  • Thousands are marching in Kafr Kana, an Arab town in northern Israel, to demand an end to Israel’s attacks in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
  • A separate crowd of Israeli protesters, led by relatives of Israeli captives in Gaza, are marching towards Jerusalem to urge the government to do whatever it can to bring their loved ones home.
  • Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, joining the march to Jerusalem, blamed the government for not doing enough to return Israeli captives.
  • The office of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called for an impartial investigation into the aid convoy attack on Thursday that killed 115 people and said responsibility for the incident falls on Israel.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 18:05

• WaPo Reporter Mocks Shoplifting Stories As The "Panic" Of "A Sticky-Fingered Nation Built On Stolen Land"
  WaPo Reporter Mocks Shoplifting Stories As The “Panic” Of “A Sticky-Fingered Nation Built On Stolen Land”

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  Washington Post writer Maura Judkis is under fire this week for a column in which she mocks shoplifting stories as the “moral panic” of a nation built on “stolen land.”

  

  It is reminiscent of those who excused rioting in past summers “as an expression of power” and demanded that the media refer to looters as “protesters.” Now, the Washington Post is suggesting that it may be just desserts for a nation of colonizers and enslavers.

  The prior day, the Post ran another column downplaying accounts of stores closing due to shoplifting even though employees blamed rampant shoplifting in San Francisco.

  Judkis wrote a Friday piece entitled “The zombie CVS, a late-capitalism horror story.” The hook was another store being looted in D.C. Judkis matter-of-factly describes how

  “Everything else that remains in the store in Northwest D.C., which is not much, is under plexiglass: Dawn dish soap, L’Oreal shampoo, MiraLax, a handful of Clairol root touch-up hair dye kits, flu season combo packs of DayQuil and NyQuil. The diapers are behind the counter. The Cetaphil and Neutrogena face washes are under lock and key. Other shelves, stretching entire aisles, are totally empty. “

  The reason for those extreme measures is brushed over. Instead, Judkis uses the story to mock such coverage as “a horror story of Late Capitalism” in which “the empty CVS had somehow become a stand-in for all that is wrong with American cities — and liberals (and liberal democracy?) — in 2024.”

  She then adds “America is a sticky-fingered nation built on stolen land, and its current moral panic is about shoplifting. It’s not just a worry in Columbia Heights. All over the country, from sea to shining CVS, there are concerns about petty theft.”

  She dismisses the shoplifting as a “political talking point” despite many stories citing such crimes as the reason for closing stories in various cities. 

  She questions the real basis for such moves and claims that “in certain conservative circles, there’s a wild narrative about cities as terrifying hellholes of crime, theft and lawlessness. The bleakness of the D.C. CVS played right into this belief.”

  The real story, she suggests, are the economic conditions leading to shoplifting.

  Other journalists have made similar objections. New York Times writer (and now Howard University Journalism Professor) Nikole Hannah-Jones, has called upon journalists stop covering shoplifting crimes, even criticizing MSNBC’s Al Sharpton for his discussion of a viral video of a man who recently stole steaks from a New York City Trader Joe’s.

  Writers like Hannah-Jones believe that reporters should actively suppress or dismiss stories on such crime to frame public opinion. It is all part of advocacy journalism. You can almost attribute it the denial of reality in “a late-journalism horror story.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 17:30

• Watch: MSNBC Legal Analyst Calls For 'Regulation' Of Disinformation As Trust In Corporate Media Collapses
  Watch: MSNBC Legal Analyst Calls For ‘Regulation’ Of Disinformation As Trust In Corporate Media Collapses

  MSNBC has long been known as one of the most biased news organizations in the US among a host of other highly biased outlets.  The hypocrisy of such an company admonishing the spread of disinformation in American society is probably not lost on most people, but it is also a survival mechanism for an industry that is swiftly fading into oblivion.  

  In numerous polls, the “mainstream media” is facing an integrity crisis.  Only 32% of Americans say they trust corporate platforms a “great deal” or a “fair amount.”  A majority of the public say they rarely trust the media or never trust the media and faith in establishment journalism is near record lows.  MSNBC, once the go-to bullhorn for the political left during the Trump Administration, has been on the receiving end of this fury with consistently low ratings and steeply declining influence over public discourse.

  That said, the company is still a useful litmus test for insights into the mind of the political left as well as a window into the thinking of establishment elites.  In a segment on disinformation featuring Michigan legal analyst Barbara McQuade, MSNBC actually engages in a mind boggling series of disinformation tangents.  It’s not so much hypocrisy as it is a master-class in propaganda.  

  Keep in mind that this is the same crew of people who recently asserted that Trump’s 20 point primary victory over Nikki Haley in her home state of South Carolina is somehow a “disaster” for the Trump campaign.  However, if we set aside the obvious anti-Trump bias for a moment, the deeper motivations of the above discussion become clear. 

  Why have Americans strayed away from the corporate media?  The bottom line is that the media is no longer a center for objective journalism (and maybe it never was), it is a disinformation machine.  The MSNBC segment above engages in disinformation in a number of ways.

  For example, they attempt to plant unconscious associations between genocidal dictators and Donald Trump in the minds of their audience.  They cite the “kidnapping conspiracy” case involving Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer as an example of public radicalization, but fail to mention that this event was utterly exposed as coordinated and controlled by the FBI.  McQuade suggests only right-wing media as a source of “disinformation” while ignoring the endless trespasses and lies perpetuated by the left-wing media.  

  The analyst goes on to insult the American public by claiming they need to “get out of their basements” and off the internet to find the facts.  In other words, they need to watch corporate media again and stay away from any alternative sources.  MSNBC laments the problem of the public being separated and limited to “news bubbles,” but this is a misrepresentation of what is really happening.  

  The topic of centralized control of news being a tool for dictators is broached, and the irony is dripping. America lived within a “news bubble” for decades.  For generations, corporate media platforms dominated the distribution of information and had the ability to mold and influence the public at will.  The populace had no other options.  The explosion of the alternative media on the internet is a direct reaction to this long time centralization and abuse of news access. 

  Whenever mainstream pundits ask questions like “How do we get Americans to listen to the facts?” what they mean to say is, “How can we once again centralize and control what Americans get to see and hear?” 

  

  McQuade touches on this issue briefly, suggesting that there are a number of options for “regulation” of social media and online sources to combat “disinformation.”  She does not elaborate for obvious reasons – We all know that regulation of news and public discourse looks a lot like the authoritarianism that she claims to fear.

  We have seen this disturbing trend in parts of the west including in Europe where online companies are required by law to heavily censor certain topics.  What constitutes “hate speech” or “dangerous speech” is arbitrarily determined by a gaggle of socialist bureaucrats.  This is the kind of news environment MSNBC prefers in the US.  

  We also witnessed the ugly nature of censorship during the pandemic hysteria, with alternative news sources crushed by rigged algorithms.  The corporate media was collapsing up until that point, but they enjoyed preferential treatment by Big Tech and by governments during covid, to the point that searches on any current event forced readers to sift through hundreds of establishment media results before finding a single alternative view. 

  The talking heads at MSNBC were right about one thing:  The methods of authoritarians might change, but the messages and intent stay the same.  In our modern era corporate platforms are the voice of Big Brother, and the only way they can maintain control of the narrative is by becoming the preeminent source of information.  That is to say, they can only accomplish dominance through suppression or regulation of alternative voices.  They know that no one will listen to them otherwise.  

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 16:55

• Let Bitcoin Cook
  Let Bitcoin Cook

  Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

  “Let him cook” has been the expression that all of the young whippersnappers are using lately when describing somebody or something that shouldn’t be interrupted, because they are on a roll.

  I know this piece will come across as annoying to some, especially because I have only been bullish on bitcoin with some gusto for the last couple of months (though I first pointed it out to my readers in December 2022), but as a newfound member of the church of bitcoin community, I’d be remiss if I didn’t try out my voice a bit.

  I apologize in advance for opining on things that many members of planet bitcoin have talked about and debated ad nauseam for the last decade. But, one way or another, I have to get myself up to speed, and I do that best cathartically through writing. As a result, you, the reader, are left here to suffer. So, you know, don’t forget to renew your paid subscriptions to Fringe Finance.

  Enough with the prelude — we all know it has been a breathtaking week for bitcoin, which is up well over 20% in just the span of days.

  

  “Oh my f*ck.” – Bubbles, Trailer Park Boys

  The moves have done well to spin up even more interest in the cryptocurrency than there was over the last month with the launch of the ETFs. Hell, even Morgan Stanley came out this week and said they were thinking of throwing their hat into the ring and launching a bitcoin fund of their own.

  

  I’ve gotten a number of phone calls and texts about bitcoin, and I’m not even a prominent member of the community, nor am I a well-known bull. And so I can’t even imagine the outreach that maximalists and longtime advocates have seen this week.

  Undoubtedly, it is exciting, and I can’t even imagine how long people have been waiting to savor this moment, after years of abuse from family members and uninformed assholes like myself, as well as general doubt about the asset class. But, if there is one small lesson I have learned from decades in the capital markets that I think translates across asset classes, it is to celebrate modestly and prepare for the worst.

  That may seem like the furthest thing from people’s minds this week, but for me, it has always been the best way to savor success. Many people who listened to the podcast that I did a couple of weeks ago with Peter McCormack know that it was arrogance and hubris that turned me off from bitcoin to begin with. Perhaps that is my fault for not having an open enough mind and not doing enough of my own work – it’s a mistake that saw me miss out on large gains. But today I’m speaking as one of the people who can visualize bitcoin as a long-term success and are genuinely excited about onboarding the rest of the world.

  My Twitter feed over the last week has been replete with people triumphantly celebrating, bragging, and taking shots at those who doubted that the price would ever go back up again. Here’s one example from my brother James Lavish, who I know well enough to know he won’t mind me using him as an example because he knows I respect the shit out of him. Behold Exhibit A: James talking shit to Vanguard.

  

  Does James have a point? Yes, he does. Could be wind up being right 50 years from now also? Yes, he could. But is it karmically sound to taunt the $7.7 trillion bear? To me, not really. I’d rather just savor the satisfaction of the temporary dub quietly.

  Everybody is well within their rights to celebrate this short-term action anyway they would like, but what I’m suggesting today is that karmically and psychologically, the less you force the issue and the more humility you show, the more evenly and consistently bitcoin will thread itself through the rest of the world.

  Think of this: celebrating making an exorbitant amount of money or rage-tweeting about your success is going to do two things: (1)it’s going to turn off people like myself who think that behavior is generally synonymous with fraud and (2) it’s going to excite investors with lower-than-average sophistication who will look for quick riches and won’t be the steady hands bitcoin needs to become a perpetual success.

  Rather, what I’m suggesting is to allow the news media to do what they do (generally be useless and chase stories long after they’ve happened) and allow people to come to the realization about bitcoin the same way that I did: on my own, once I felt as though I wasn’t being suffocated with the idea by outside sources anymore.

  ---

  🔥 50% OFF SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR LIFE: If you are not yet a subscriber, you can take 50% off for life by using this link: GET 50% OFF

  ---

  My interest in looking at bitcoin this go-round in early 2024 was completely organic: the news coverage of it had died down, and I had blocked or unfollowed enough people who were hyping it that I could have some clarity and some peace of mind about it when I sat down to consider how it worked, seriously, for the first time ever. It was that calm, relaxed, blank slate that allowed me to grasp the relatively complex concepts of how it worked and believe in it the way that I do now.

  I think given the astronomical week that we just had, we’d be better off to “act like we’ve been here before” and to remember that sometimes the more you push an idea, the more people are prone to resistance than barking like hyenas and taunting people. If bitcoin had a $50 trillion market cap, that’d be a different story. But we’re still in the early stages of this courtship with the rest of the world and, like any good relationship or friendship in your life, there has to be a genuine organic interest in “showing up” to the idea of it happening. All of those who have been smothered by a partner or a friend in the past know that all it does is create distortions and unhealthy dynamics. Such delicate things cannot be forced, but rather, accepted willfully like a slow, purposeful deep breath outside on a winter day.

  This is not to say that I don’t believe this week is the beginning of much larger adoption that would likely drive the price of bitcoin higher. As I said on the “What Bitcoin Did” podcast, I believe that there is at least one, if not several, nation-states looking at putting bitcoin on their sovereign balance sheets, and that this will kick off a period of game theory for the digital asset revolution the likes of which we haven’t seen yet. Just days after I said that, yesterday Edward Snowden came out and postulated the same.

  

  Try to keep up with me, Eddie.

  But in all seriousness, we know what will happen if the price continues to rise. The hype will continue to flywheel further, as will interest and adoption. People will have the same realization that it took me a decade to figure out: this thing simply isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. But if you ask me, especially given the fact that we all know how quickly price moves can whipsaw back to the downside in the short term, I think the community would be well served to focus less on spiking the football here and more on how we will be able to clearly explain and convey the transformation that is unfolding before our eyes in a calm, measured, and comprehensive way.

  After all, whose questions do you want to deal with on the next 20% overnight whipsaw lower: unsophisticated maniacs or measured investors who already know and expect the volatility that is a certainty.

  And the more time we spend setting reasonable expectations that bitcoin can easily exceed, instead of overpromising and underdelivering, the less time we have to brag about being right. The journey is the reward. Or, as the bible says:

  “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”

  — Proverbs 11:2

  But I think if Jesus were around today, he would simply tell us to “let bitcoin cook”.

  

  

  QTR’s Disclaimer: I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. I didn’t double check any numbers or figures in this piece and am generally lazy with my research. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. Contributor posts and curated content are posted either with the author’s permission or under a Creative Commons license. This is not a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. Sometimes I just lose money by misplacing it. I’m generally irresponsible. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. These positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. Do your research elsewhere. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it numerous times because it’s that important that you

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 16:20

• The Next ZeroHedge Live Debate: Sen. Ron Johnson And Joe Walsh Face Off Over The Ukraine War
  The Next ZeroHedge Live Debate: Sen. Ron Johnson And Joe Walsh Face Off Over The Ukraine War

  As House Democrats gear up to force a vote on another $60 billion to Ukraine — plus $14 billion to Israel and $5 billion to Taiwan — prepare yourself for a PR campaign by congressional hawks complete with taxpayer-funded Zelensky photo ops, sanctimonious moral lectures from Sen. Chuck Schumer, and celebrations of dead youth by triple-flag-username Adam Kinzinger:

  I met with the U.S. Senate delegation, Senate Democratic Majority Leader @SenSchumer and senators @SenBlumenthal, @SenJackReed, @MichaelBennet, and @SenatorHassan.

  This visit is a solid message from the United States and the American people. It shows that the U.S. support… pic.twitter.com/hjSYvmzFWd

  — Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 23, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  What’s the difference between Feb 24, 2022, and Feb 24, 2024?

  Answer: 400,000 fewer Russians.

  Slava Ukrainii

  — Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@AdamKinzinger) February 24, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Beyond this shallow jingoism, do not expect the Schumer’s and McConnell’s to engage in substantive dialogues with you — the underwriter — about the risks inherent to funding a Russian proxy war, its relevance to America’s interests, or the track record of those pushing it. Most members of Congress avoid factual rigor and scrutiny like the plague.

  Thankfully, there are exceptions to every rule…

  ZeroHedge will be hosting two (one current, one former) members of Congress — Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and fmr Congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois — for an in-depth discussion on the war in Ukraine and the role America should play. X Spaces influencer Mario Nawfal will moderate the debate in-person, which will stream live on ZeroHedge.com.

  

  They will answer the question: Should the U.S. continue to fund and provide operational support to Ukraine?

  To illustrate their divide: Walsh, the former Illinoisan Rep, has hailed Biden’s Ukraine policy as “one of the greatest defenses of freedom… ever put on the world’s stage” while the Wisconsinite Senator believes Ukraine “can’t win” and that it and the U.S. must pursue a negotiated settlement:

  Three thoughts this morning:

  1) Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last year will go down in history as one of the biggest fuckups & biggest miscalculations ever made by a major figure on the world’s stage.

  2) Joe Biden’s response to Putin’s invasion, Biden’s strong defense of…

  — Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) June 24, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The war in Ukraine is a bloody stalemate. Every day that goes by, more people die. This war should be brought to an end. The sooner the better.

  The Democrats’ open border is a clear and present danger to America. Closing it should be our top national and homeland security… pic.twitter.com/lArDmzzXFT

  — Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) December 13, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Healthy debate is sorely lacking on Capitol Hill, where it’s most needed. For bucking this trend, we have tremendous respect for both Johnson and Walsh and are looking forward to a civil exchange of ideas. We urge more elected officials to follow the Walsh-Johnson example.

  Tune in on Wednesday, March 6 at 7pm ET on zerohedge.com to watch the debate live.

  As usual, our moderator will take questions submitted by Premium and Pro subscribers in the comment section (sign up here for the opportunity to have your question answered by a member of Congress).

  Attend In-person

  ZeroHedge is offering a limited number of VIP tickets to readers who wish to join us backstage in our studio in Washington D.C. and enjoy the debate live. Only 10 tickets will be made available. An even more limited number of tickets are available for an ultra exclusive dinner with several of the participants and ZH organizers.

  For questions and tickets, please email debates@zerohedge.com and inquire about the even-more-limited private dinner.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 15:45

• Evidence And Insights About Gold's Long-Term Uptrend
  Evidence And Insights About Gold’s Long-Term Uptrend

  By Jesse Colombo of BullionStar

  For the past few years, gold has been treading water with no clear direction and causing even the most die-hard gold bugs to scratch their heads in confusion regarding the yellow metal’s next major move. Though gold surged during the most acute phase of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic due to the unprecedented tsunami of liquidity from global central banks, it has since bounced around between $1,600 to $2,100. In this piece, I will show that gold is still in a confirmed long-term uptrend despite the choppy action of the past few years. I will also show several factors that should create a tailwind for gold in the next decade and beyond.

  The Technical Backdrop

  It’s helpful to take a step back and look at the big picture when the short-term picture is unclear. Gold’s monthly chart going back to the year 2000 shows that the metal is in a confirmed uptrend according to the most basic, widely accepted tenets of technical analysis. For starters, gold has been consistently making higher highs and higher lows over the past quarter-century. In addition, gold has been climbing up a long-term uptrend line that formed in the early-2000s. From a technical perspective, gold will remain in a confirmed long-term uptrend as long as it stays above that uptrend line — after all, a trend in motion tends to remain in motion.

  

  If you look at gold’s price action of the past five years, you can see that there is a strong resistance zone overhead from $2,000 to $2,100. Gold has attempted to break above that resistance zone several times since 2020 to no avail. If gold can finally close decisively above its $2,000 to $2,100 resistance zone, that would indicate that another phase of the bull market has likely begun.

  

  (Of course, I need to point out that gold and silver’s price discovery process has been corrupted and distorted by the explosion of “paper” or synthetic gold and silver products including futures, options, swaps, and exchange traded funds that are not fully backed by actual physical gold and silver.

  Over the past couple of decades, the amount of outstanding synthetic gold and silver has ballooned relative to the amount of physical gold and silver in existence, which has suppressed physical precious metals prices. In a genuine and fair market, physical gold and silver prices would be much higher than they currently are. You can learn more about this issue here and here.)

  The Role of Paper Money Debasement

  There are numerous factors that drive the price of gold, but dilution of fiat or “paper” currencies is one of the most glaring. For the past five decades, all of the world’s major currencies have been downgraded to mere “paper” currencies that are unbacked by gold, which has predictably resulted in an explosion of the global money supply and the ensuing erosion of those currencies’ purchasing power.

  To put it in layman’s terms, a rising money supply harms the value of currencies and results in inflation or higher living costs. When the cost of housing, groceries, car insurance, healthcare, and college education all rise together, look no further than the debasement of paper money. When currencies were backed by gold, it was impossible to dilute them the way that paper currencies are diluted because every currency unit was required to have a certain amount of gold backing it up and it’s impossible to print or conjure gold out of thin air. For that same reason, people clamor to the safety of gold when paper money is being diluted to oblivion.

  The chart below shows the United States M2 money supply, which is a measure of all notes and coins that are in circulation, checking accounts, travelers’ checks, savings deposits, time deposits under $100,000, and shares in retail money market mutual funds. The U.S. M2 money supply has more than quadrupled since the early-2000s, which was a major factor behind gold’s long-term uptrend that began at that time.

  

  Though paper money is typically diluted as a function of time, this process accelerated dramatically after the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 – 2008 due to widespread government bailouts, fiscal and monetary stimulus, and quantitative easing (QE), which can be thought of as digital money printing for the purpose of propping up the economy and boosting the financial markets.

  The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an even more reckless printfest that caused nearly every measure of money supply in practically every country to go vertical in just a few months as central banks — including the U.S. Federal Reserve — desperately tried to prop up their economies and financial markets during the pandemic lockdowns with trillions upon trillions of dollars worth of stimulus.

  The chart below shows how gold follows the M2 money supply higher over time:

  

  The next chart shows the ratio of gold’s price to the M2 money supply, which is helpful for seeing if gold is keeping up with money supply growth, outpacing it, or lagging it. If gold’s price greatly outpaces money supply growth (the red zone in the chart below), there is a heightened chance of a strong correction. If gold’s price lags money supply growth (the green zone in the chart below), however, there is a good chance that gold will soon experience of period of strength. Since the mid-2010s, gold has slightly lagged M2 money supply growth, which could set it up for a period of strength due to the other factors discussed in this piece.

  

  The U.S. Dollar’s Declining Purchasing Power

  As discussed earlier, a rising money supply erodes the purchasing power of paper currencies over time. The Noble Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman described this process succinctly: “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon…” Since the year 2000, the U.S. dollar has lost nearly half of its purchasing power largely due to reckless monetary experiments conducted by the U.S. Federal Reserve, which is supposed to be a good steward of America’s currency but has proven to be the exact opposite.

  

  Unfortunately, the U.S. dollar’s debasement since the year 2000 wasn’t a fluke — it was just a continuation of the trend that started almost immediately after the Federal Reserve was founded in 1913. Since then, the American currency has lost a jaw-dropping 97% of its purchasing power with no end in sight. As long as the U.S. dollar remains an unbacked fiat currency, it is going to keep losing purchasing power as a function of time.

  

  The U.S. National Debt

  America’s surging national debt has been another driver of gold’s bull market since the early-2000s. A combination of costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, bailouts and stimulus programs during the Global Financial Crisis of 2007 – 2008, and stimulus programs during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic caused the U.S. national debt to explode sixfold from $5.77 trillion in 2000 to $34.3 trillion in 2024.

  

  Even more concerning is the fact that the U.S. Congressional Budget Office expects the federal debt held by the public as a percentage of GDP to surge from just below 100% currently to approximately 170% over the next couple decades:

  

  Since the 2020 pandemic, America’s exploding national debt combined with rising interest rates have caused annual interest payments to double to nearly $1 trillion:

  

  Now costing U.S. taxpayers a mind-boggling $1 trillion per year, federal interest payments are set to exceed both the cost of defense and Medicare this year for the first time ever:

  

  Over the past few years, U.S. federal interest payments as a percentage of GDP have increased at the sharpest rate in at least seventy years:

  

  As a country’s national debt burden increases, the probability of a fiscal, economic, and currency crisis increases, which was what gold has been pricing in over the past quarter century. America’s surging debts — both public and private — are ultimately setting the stage for the destruction of the U.S. dollar, which will be sacrificed by the Federal Reserve and U.S. federal government as they run the printing presses on overdrive in a desperate attempt to pay for the spiraling cost of interest, Medicare, Social Security, welfare benefits, inevitable future bailouts and fiscal stimulus programs, and all other government spending. Throughout history, every paper currency has succumbed to the same fate as governments prove unable to resist the temptation of the printing press

  Conclusion

  To summarize, gold began a powerful uptrend in the early-2000s and it is still in that same uptrend despite the choppy price action of the past few years. The factors that originally drove gold’s uptrend are still in effect and, in many cases, are accelerating. Over the next decade and beyond, we are going to see a staggering increase in debt and the money supply, which will result in terrible inflation and, ultimately, hyperinflation. Though this piece focused primarily on the U.S. monetary and fiscal situation, make no mistake — practically every major economy is in the same boat and has its own version of the charts and data shown here.

  Though the paper money supply will increase exponentially in the years ahead, the supply of physical precious metals like gold and silver will remain relatively constant in comparison, which is a recipe for much higher gold and silver prices. I personally favor physical gold and silver bullion over all other investments (including gold ETFs and mining shares) in these unprecedented times.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 15:10

• Germany Confirms Leaked Audio Of Its Top Generals Discussing Blowing Up The Crimean Bridge
  Germany Confirms Leaked Audio Of Its Top Generals Discussing Blowing Up The Crimean Bridge

  In a huge development and absolute smoking gun revelation, the government of Germany has confirmed the authenticity of a leaked audio recording file published by Russia’s state-backed RT. The leak was first published by RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan, who described that she received it from Russian security officials.

  It first appeared under the headline “Alleged audio of German officers discussing Crimean Bridge attack leaked” – as it featured top ranking Germany military officials in a private discussion of “a potential German operation to bomb the Crimean Bridge in Russia,” as it was initially described by RT. Russian media is now openly admitting that the call was in fact intercepted by Russia. Moscow is now saying this shows “direct” German involvement in the war.

  

  The audio could have easily been dismissed in the West as simply Russian-sourced propaganda or even an AI fake; however, in an unexpected development the highest levels of the German government have now confirmed that the audio is indeed real and Berlin launched an investigation into the “serious” breach of secured communications.

  “What is being reported is a very serious matter and that is why it is now being investigated very carefully, very intensively and very quickly,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in Rome.

  Germany’s military has also confirmed the leaked recording, but officials have avoided weighing in the actual content of what was said pending an internal investigation:

  A German defense ministry spokeswoman confimed to AFP that the ministry believes a conversation in the air force division was “intercepted”.

  “We are currently unable to say for certain whether changes were made to the recorded or transcribed version that is circulating on social media,” the spokeswoman said. Experts consulted by Der Spiegel magazine said they believed the recording was authentic.

  Germany’s Ministry of Defense said per the country’s dpa: “According to our assessment, a conversation within the Air Force was intercepted. We cannot currently say with certainty whether changes have been made to the recorded or written version that is circulating on social media.”

  AFP further writes that “Topics include aiming the missiles at targets such as a key bridge over the Kerch strait linking the Russian mainland to Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.”

  

  Additionally the potential supply of Taurus long-range air-to-surface missile to Kiev is a major focus of the conversation. The Franco-British cruise missile Storm Shadow also receives mention. 

  Importantly, it seems none other than Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz – the commander of the national air force, is among the four voices heard in the audio among top generals within the Bundeswehr, Germany’s armed forces.

  A particularly damning section of the audio for which Moscow is currently demanding answers from German leaders…

  🇩🇪 Germany Planned a Crimea Attack

  German military officials reportedly planned to attack Russia’s Crimea bridge, aiming for strategic and political impact, stressing non-direct involvement.

  “The target is not only of military-strategic importance, but also political good. We… pic.twitter.com/rfIjC8E7eo

  — Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 1, 2024

  They are heard openly discussing “interesting targets” including the “bridge in the east” and nearby “ammunition depots”. 

  Of course, the vital 12-mile bridge which spans the Kerch Strait and connects Crimea with mainland Russia was already previously severely damaged and briefly knocked out of commission in a major July 2023 missile or drone attack from Ukraine. Prior to that in October 2022 a truck bomb detonated on the bridge, resulting in parts of the roadway collapsing into the water below.

  Those prior attacks were suspected to have had Western intelligence help, given the sophistication of the operations. Are the German officers caught in the audio possibly plotting another future attack? (Or alternately some of the contents or references could predate the prior attacks on the bridge, timeline-wise). Third time’s a charm? Most likely, this is a very recent conversation wherein they talk about a future potential attack:

  In the 38-minute recording, military officers discuss the question of how the Taurus long-range cruise missiles could be used by Ukraine. A debate has been taking place in Germany over whether to supply the missiles as Ukraine faced setbacks on the battlefield after two years of war, and with military aid from the United States being held up in Congress.

  Earlier this week Scholz said he remains reluctant to send the Taurus missiles to Ukraine, pointing to a risk of Germany becoming directly involved in the war. His hesitancy is a source of friction in his three-party coalition and also annoyed Germany’s conservative opposition.

  But in the purported audio recording, German officers discuss the theoretical possibility of the missiles being used in Ukraine.

  Listen to more snippets from the Crimean Bridge section of the recording:

  Margarita Simonyan, as promised, publishes audio of a conversation between Bundeswehr officers discussing how they will bomb the Crimean Bridge. https://t.co/nIns6PjRlL pic.twitter.com/x5WVyZSYWw

  — Victor vicktop55 (@vicktop55) March 1, 2024

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 14:35

• Congress Must Investigate John Podesta's Role In Biden's LNG Decision
  Congress Must Investigate John Podesta’s Role In Biden’s LNG Decision

  Authored by Larry Behrens via RealClear Wire,

  Ever since 2016, talk to a liberal and there’s a good chance that they will blame “Russia” for something. Election interference, inflation, record-high gas prices, the list goes on and on. Since taking office, Joe Biden continues to take this deflection to a new level. As a gallon of gas soared past $5 in the summer of 2022 it was all Russia’s fault. And who can forget the ill-fated #PutinsPriceHike campaign as Team Biden tried to dodge criticism for skyrocketing inflation.

  

  Yet according to recent revelations, there may be more to Biden’s “America Last” energy policy than meets the eye, and again, Russia enters the picture.

  According to a bombshell report from the Washington Free Beacon, the decision to halt American liquified natural gas (LNG) exports was pushed by Biden’s new Climate Czar John Podesta, who recently took over for John Kerry.

  As a well-known climate warrior, it makes sense Podesta would be pushing for policies against American energy interests. Yet at the same time, Podesta’s brother, Tony, one of DC’s most well-connected mega lobbyists, has financial connections to foreign LNG companies, including one with links to a Russian oligarch. It is concerning to see the Podesta family standing to profit from a policy priority of the White House who employs another Podesta. Foreign companies, including Russia, are clear beneficiaries Biden’s LNG attack. It should be raising questions about potential conflicts of interest and profit motives at the White House.

  Even more troubling is the fact that this decision plays right into the hands of Vladimir Putin, the same dictator that Biden and his allies have been quick to blame for our country’s woes. By halting American LNG exports, Biden is handing Putin a wider energy market, allowing him to continue raking in billions while American energy workers suffer, and our families pay higher prices.

  As even the left-leaning Washington Post editorial board put it, “Biden’s LNG decision is a win for political symbolism, not the climate.”

  For the record, this is not the first time the Podestas were caught in ethical compromising situation. In 2019, Tony Podesta was investigated by the Southern District of New York for potential violations of foreign lobbying rules. Back in 2021, the same Podesta brother pocketed a cool $1 million by lobbying Biden in favor of Chinese telecommunications. Instead of tapping the brakes on this questionable influence, Joe Biden picked John Podesta to replace John Kerry and then put him in charge of the largest green slush fund in American history.

  At a time when the country is still facing too-high gas prices and inflation, it is unacceptable for the Biden administration to prioritize the interests of foreign companies, and his radical green supporters over those of American workers and consumers. It is imperative that Congress launch an investigation into these suspicious ties to uncover the truth behind Biden’s energy policy and determine whether there is any real Russian collusion at play.

  The House of Representatives deserves credit for investigating other elements of Biden’s green grift, including an electric vehicle battery deal that Ford reached with a Chinese company. It seems there is no end to the amount of our money Team Biden is willing to spend for more…green.

  It is time for Biden to put America first and prioritize the needs of the American people over the profits of foreign entities.

  It is time for Congress to step up and ensure that our energy policies are in the best interests of the country, not those of foreign oligarchs. The time for action is now. Let us demand the truth and hold our leaders accountable for their actions. Congress must investigate because America deserves nothing less.

  Larry Behrens is the Communications Director for Power The Future. He has appeared on Fox News, OANN and NewsMax speaking in defense of American energy workers. He is the author of the book “Sabotage: How Joe Biden Surrendered American Energy Independence.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 14:00

• IRS To Retrieve Potentially Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars From Americans Who Failed To File Tax Returns
  IRS To Retrieve Potentially Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars From Americans Who Failed To File Tax Returns

  Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced a new effort aimed at boosting tax revenue from taxpayers who haven’t filed returns for several years, with the initiative expected to net at least hundreds of millions of dollars.

  

  The new initiative, announced on Feb. 29, focuses on 125,000 cases of taxpayers with annual incomes over $400,000 who didn’t file tax returns between 2017 and 2021.

  The IRS said it was tipped off by various types of third-party information indicating that these taxpayers received taxable income but failed to file a tax return.

  Information on these taxpayers indicates total financial activity of over $100 billion.

  “Even with a conservative estimate, the IRS believes hundreds of millions of dollars of unpaid taxes are involved in these cases,” the agency said in a statement.

  The IRS will soon start sending letters (known as CP59 notices) to the affected taxpayers at a rate of between 20,000–40,000 per week.

  The agency warned that people who receive these letters should take immediate action to avoid higher penalties and “increasingly stronger enforcement measures.”

  The penalty of failure to pay is 5 percent of the amount owed each month, up to a maximum of 25 percent of the tax bill.

  ‘Risk Will Just Grow’

  Roughly 25,000 cases involve taxpayers who made over $1 million in income, while around 100,000 pertain to non-filers with incomes between $400,000 and $1 million.

  In all cases, the IRS was tipped off by way of third-party information, including through Forms W-2 and 1099s, that these people received incomes within the above ranges between tax years 2017 and 2021.

  Some of these non-filers have multiple years included in each case, so the total number of taxpayers targeted by the new initiative will be smaller than the roughly 125,000 letters that will be sent out.

  “We cannot tolerate those with higher incomes failing to do a basic civic duty of filing a tax return,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement.

  “For those who owe, the risk will just grow over time as will the potential for penalties and interest,” he added.

  The latest move is part of a broader IRS effort to ramp up tax enforcement thanks to a $60 billion funding boost from the Inflation Reduction Act.

  While the IRS has vowed to spare Americans earning less than $400,000 from its enforcement crackdown, a watchdog has cast doubt on the agency’s ability to make good on this pledge.

  New Compliance Crackdown

  The IRS announced four new initiatives in October that target high-income, high-wealth individuals, as well as large corporations.

  One of these thrusts is focused on U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies that distribute goods in the United States but don’t pay enough tax.

  “These foreign companies report losses or exceedingly low margins year after year through the improper use of transfer pricing to avoid reporting an appropriate amount of U.S. profits,” the agency said in a statement.

  The second initiative relates to the IRS Large Business & International Division’s (LB&I) Large Corporate Compliance (LCC) arm, which is being expanded and will be auditing an additional 60 big corporations with assets worth over $24 billion on average.

  The third initiative involves cracking down on abuse of a corporate tax break that was repealed several years ago, while the fourth targets individual taxpayers who make over $1 million in annual income and have over $250,000 in recognized tax debts.

  While the IRS has repeated time and again that it’s new enforcement crackdown won’t target Americans earning less than $400,000, a watchdog has cast doubt on this pledge and the agency’s chief hinted that this might inadvertently happen.

  The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), which is the watchdog overseeing the IRS, said in a September report that the IRS would have a hard time making good on its $400,000 pledge because the agency doesn’t have a clear definition of “high income” and many of its tax enforcers still use an outdated $200,000 threshold as their default.

  Mr. Werfel said in recent testimony on Capitol Hill that his “marching order to the IRS” is not to increase audit rates for people making less than $400,000, but added that, “if we fall short of that, I will be held accountable,” hinting that even with the best intentions, there’s a chance overzealous enforcers might do so anyway.

  A separate watchdog report revealed that the IRS managed to rake in a record $4.9 trillion in taxes from Americans in the last fiscal year, in large part due to automated collections processes and aggressive audits.

  While the IRS is set to continue increasing its reliance on automated systems to squeeze more tax dollars from American taxpayers, it’s also looking to hire another 3,700 tax enforcers as it spends an extra $46 billion of the recent $60 billion funding boost on enforcement.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 12:50

• Taibbi: MSNBC, Paul Krugman Panic Over "White Rural Rage"
  Taibbi: MSNBC, Paul Krugman Panic Over “White Rural Rage”

  Authored by Matt Taibbi via Racket News,

  This week in undisguised class hatred: the New York Times and MSNBC slobber over a new book on the domestic threat

  “Tom, I’ll start with you,” began Mika Brzezinski. “Why are rural white voters a threat to democracy at this point?”

  Fastball delivered, University of Maryland professor and co-author of just-released White Rural Rage: The Threat To American Democracy Tom Schaller took a swing. He and Mika first complained rural voters should be supporting Joe Biden, given his roots — you’d have to be pretty high to call Scranton “rural,” but whatever — then Schaller read off small town America’s charge sheet: rural whites, he said, are the most “racist,” “xenophobic,” “anti-immigrant and anti-gay,” “conspiracist,” “anti-democratic,” they “don’t believe in an independent press or free speech,” and are “most likely to accept or excuse violence,” for starters.

  White Rural Rage, which I made the mistake of reading, is a vicious manifesto in the anti-populist tradition nailed by Thomas Frank in The People, No. When rural voters in the late 1800s defied New York banking interests and demanded currency reform to allow farmers an escape from one of the original “rigged games” in finance, relentless propaganda ensued. Rural populists were depicted as dirty, bigoted, ignorant. They refused expert wisdom, represented a “frantic challenge against every feature of our civilization,” and waged a “shameful insurrection against law and national honesty.” A populist caricature in Judge magazine showed a violent, destructive idiot, a real-life Lennie from still-unwritten Of Mice and Men, standing over the defiled corpse of civilized America:

  

  The theme is back, condescension multiplied. Despite a pandemic that just graphically demonstrated the social contributions of farmers, truckers, train operators, and other “essential workers,” the people working those jobs were demonized during the crisis as murderous horse-paste eaters and insurrectionists. Their chief crimes: protesting lockdowns and school closures that disproportionately affected them, and being consumers of supposed foreign-inspired “misinformation” that led them to refuse appropriate political choices offered them.

  Nobel-winning columnist Paul Krugman of the New York Times spent the last year telling “ignorant” Middle America its negative feelings about the economy are “demonstrably false,” because despite what their bank accounts or home evaluations might say, “Bidenomics is still working very well.” When White Rural Rage came out this week he rushed to review it, the intransigent refusal of yokels to accept his wisdom being his favored current hobby horse. “The Mystery of Rural White Rage” is remarkable on multiple levels, one being that after spending so much energy talking about the health of the economy, he pulls out an economic version of Sam Kinison’s classic “Move to the Food!” routine:

  The decline of small-town manufacturing is a more complicated story, and imports play a role, but it’s also mainly about technological change that favors metropolitan areas with large numbers of highly educated workers. Technology, then, has made America as a whole richer, but it has reduced economic opportunities in rural areas. So why don’t rural workers go where the jobs are?

  He answers his question: “Some cities have become unaffordable… and many workers are reluctant to leave their families and communities.”

  To recap: globalization and technological change have devastated small towns and made the urban keyboard warriors richer, and rural voters can’t move to the cities because they can’t afford to. However, instead of being grateful for the “huge de facto transfers of money from rich, urban states like New Jersey to poor, relatively rural states like West Virginia” in the form of federal programs paid by the taxes of luckier citizens like Krugman, small town America is unaccountably hostile.

  Schaller and White Rural Rage co-author Paul Waldman make the same point, that “cities produce far more of the nation’s wealth,” and rural citizens are increasingly “subsidized by the taxes paid by higher-income metropolitans.” What gives? Why won’t they shut the fuck up?

  “For so long,” complained Waldman on Morning Joe, “Democrats have been told… that in order to get rural voters… you have to go there… you have to show them that you understand… You have to put on a Carhartt jacket and go down to somebody’s farm, right? Maybe milk a cow?”

  “Yes!” exclaimed* Mika.

  But it turns out, a sad Waldman pronounced, that you “don’t have to do any of that,” because Donald Trump didn’t. He just “gave [rural voters] a way to essentially give a big middle finger to Democrats, to people who live in cities and to the rest of the country.”

  The Morning Joe set looked perplexed.

  Why would that work better than wearing a Carhartt jacket and milking a cow? It didn’t make sense.

  Educated America. We’re in good hands!

  *The correct phrase is really “‘Yes,’ dipshitted Mika,” but I was afraid the usage would throw off some readers. For future reference, it may come up again

  Subscribe to Matt Taibbi’s Racket News substack here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 12:25

• US Military Begins Airdropping Food Into Gaza
  US Military Begins Airdropping Food Into Gaza

  With the humanitarian disaster in Gaza growing more desperate each day, President Biden on Friday afternoon announced that the United States government would begin airdropping food and other supplies into the territory. Jordan has airdropped supplies in recent weeks, and Biden said that kingdom and other countries would join the effort.

  Biden’s announcement comes after a catastrophe that saw more than 100 Palestinians killed by some combination of Israeli Defense Forces gunfire and stampeding after they massed on a convoy of about 30 trucks that had arrived in Gaza City to distribute food in the pre-dawn hours on Thursday. It also comes after more than 100,000 Michigan Democrats voted “uncommitted” in the Tuesday primary election, with many in the battleground state doing so to protest Biden’s handling of the Israel-Gaza war. 

  

  Over half of Gaza’s more than 2 million residents have been forced from their homes. In the IDF-pulverized north — where Thursday’s horror unfolded and hundreds of thousands still linger — one in six children under age 2 are acutely malnourished, according to an analysis by the Global Nutrition Cluster.

  More broadly, nearly 600,000 Palestinians in Gaza are near famine level, and disease is mounting. Driven to extreme measures, many are grinding animal feed into flour — and a toddler reportedly died last week after eating bread made that way. “We began to eat fodder and barley like animals in order to survive,” his weeping mother told al Jazeera.  

  Officials tell Reuters the US relief missions will begin as soon as this weekend. Planning for airdrops must be done with great care. “There’s few military operations that are more complicated than humanitarian assistance airdrops,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. 

  It appears the US airdrops have begun Saturday:

  The U.S. Air Forces Central Command has just conducted its First Round of Humanitarian Airdrops into the Gaza Strip, with 3 C-130 Transport Aircraft flying at Low Altitude dropping upwards of 66 Pallets containing 38,000 Meals for the Palestinian Population. pic.twitter.com/PXBncWuQhj

  — OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 2, 2024

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  “The biggest risk is making sure nobody gets hurt on the ground.” In addition to that peril, airdrops have the drawback of being relatively inefficient, with each drop only equaling between one and four truckloads of cargo.

  Delivering aid via trucks would be far safer and efficient — if only the trucks could get in to the beleaguered, 25-mile-long strip. On that front, Biden said the White House would be pressuring Israel to let relief flow. “We’re going to insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need,” he said. Trucks laden with water and baby formula have sat for a month at Gaza’s border with Egypt, reports the Wall Street Journal. 

  

  When Israel began its response to the Oct 7 Hamas invasion of southern Israel that led to the deaths of 1,139 Israeli civilians, military personnel and foreigners, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that the deprivation of food to Gaza civilians would be one of Israel’s tactics:

  “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”

  Meanwhile, Israeli protesters have been attempting to prevent aid trucks from proceeding into Gaza. When reporters asked one of them, 32-year-old Rachel Touitou if she had any empathy for civilians in Gaza, she shrugged and said, “Should I have mercy on the children of today who will be the terrorists of tomorrow?”

  Today at the Nitzana border crossing Israeli citizens are bringing their machine guns and small children to block all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. The military is having fun. The kids are cooking cotton candy. pic.twitter.com/9rGpCnQS4A

  — Jeremy Loffredo (@loffredojeremy) February 27, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  About 90% of children in Gaza reportedly have some kind of infectious disease, with 70% suffering from diarrhea in the previous two weeks. ”Hungry, weakened and deeply traumatized children are more likely to get sick,” said Dr Mike Ryan of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program, “and children who are sick, especially with diarrhea, cannot absorb nutrients well. It’s dangerous, and tragic, and happening before our eyes.” Much, apparently, to the delight of Rachel Touitou and others. 

  Initial US airdrops are likely to consist of military Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) ration packets. On Friday, Biden told reporters that, in addition to airdrops and truck shipments, the administration would “seek to continue to open up other avenues…including the possibility of a marine corridor to deliver large amounts of humanitarian assistance.”   

  Of course, no Biden appearance would be complete without the obviously failing president misnaming someone or something important. True to form, Biden twice said “Ukraine” when he intended to refer to Gaza. He was reading from a prepared statement, but things went wrong when he dared to speak on his own: 

  President Biden says they will be completing air drops of ‘food and supplies into Ukraine’, and the US is seeking to open up ‘other avenues in Ukraine’. Mr Biden meant to say Gazahttps://t.co/GD1gLkuJSj pic.twitter.com/zvx5phNx5p

  — Sky News (@SkyNews) March 1, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 03/02/2024 – 12:15

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